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He had just ripped a double down the left field line and heard the crowd roar as Gil Velazquez stormed all the way around from first base to touch home plate. Now, he stood on second base, looking toward Corban Joseph standing on third, with two runs in and nobody out in the third inning.

The way Chris Bootcheck had been controlling his opponents all month, Neal and the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders were looking mighty strong.

Neal's double started a four-run third inning and a 2 for 3 day, and Bootcheck overpowered Syracuse over seven innings on the way to a convincing 8-1 win at in front of 3,158 fans at PNC Field.

The win helped the RailRiders even their record at 8-8 on the young season.

"Boot's been throwing the ball extremely well this season," said Neal, who scored three times and doubled home another run in a three-run sixth. "Some days, (the hits) are going to fall, and some days they're not. But as long as we stick to our approaches and keep getting good swings, that's the only thing we have control over. If we take care of that, everything else will take care of itself."

And Bootcheck did take care of that big early lead.

It's not as if he didn't have to work around jams, but when the game was in doubt, the tight spots he faced all came with two out. Like in the second, when Carlos Rivero and Zach Walters ripped back-to-back singles that put runners on first and third.

But Bootcheck escaped by firing a high fastball past former big league pitcher-turned-outfielder Micah Owings to end the inning, a scoreless inning with a nod to a scouting report he took from watching Vidal Nuno flummox the Chiefs on Sunday.

"I really watched how Nuno attacked them, and it seemed like fastballs up in the top of zone, they were offering at," Bootcheck said. "I felt like getting to two strikes was the challenge. Let our defense play behind me, and let's get the bats in the dugout to swing it."

After that, Bootcheck cruised, retiring nine in a row before Jeff Kobernus poked a two-out RBI single to right in the fifth that made it 4-1.

That is the only run Bootcheck has allowed over 18 innings and three starts this season. Combined with Nuno's start and the one made in the first game of Saturday's doubleheader by Chien-Ming Wang, the RailRiders have now gotten three starts in four games in which the starting pitcher has pitched five or more innings and allowed one run or less.

"Guys are putting us in position to win the game," catcher Austin Romine said after going 1 for 4 with an RBI single in that third inning. "Just giving us six or seven innings is huge for the team. Guys see them working all the time, and they play all that much harder for them."

Facing former Scranton/Wilkes-Barre right-hander Ross Ohlendorf, the RailRiders finally capitalized on early opportunities to post a crooked number. Zoilo Almonte's two-run double in the third was a line drive that burned Kobernus in center and brought Corban Joseph and Neal around to make the score 3-0.

After Syracuse finally scratched that run across against Bootcheck in the fifth - raising his ERA from 0.00 to 0.50 in the process - his teammates got it right back for him. With the infield shifted to the right side, Dan Johnson lined a single into the gap vacated by the shortstop to bring Neal home for a 5-1 lead.

Velazquez went 2 for 3, and his RBI single combined with Neal's double to make it 8-1 in the sixth, a lead that seemed insurmountable the way Bootcheck has been pitching.

"He pitches his game," manager Dave Miley said. "There were a couple of walks, but you can't beat the outcome."

Porcupine points

n Left-hander Vidal Nuno was named International League Pitcher of the Week on Monday, a day after mastering Syracuse over 5 innings on Sunday. For the week, Nuno went 2-0 with a 0.77 ERA. For the season, his 1.54 ERA ranks fifth in the IL.

n Outfielder Ronnier Mustelier, who opened the season in extended spring training after suffering a bone bruise on his knee late in spring training, played three innings in an extended spring game Monday.

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